1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to control and utilization of Personal Information Management (PIM) data such as calendar and contact information in the context of personal and professional activities. More specifically, the present invention relates to the sharing and updating of PIM data amongst various users and information stores.
2. Description of Related Art
Despite personal computing coming to fruition only in the latter quarter of the twentieth century, PIM data has existed in various forms and has been utilized as early as the commercial introduction of the telephone in the late 1800s.
For example, early telephone switching technology required a manual switchboard where all telephone lines in a local area terminated. At the terminal points, plugs were installed so that two lines could be connected to one another. When a customer placed a call, an operator would receive the placed call and inquire as to whom the caller was attempting to reach. The operator would then connect the caller and the callee. Identifying information relating to the telephone lines of the caller and callee constituted a primitive form of PIM data in that this identifying information provided a point of contact like modern-day contact information such as a telephone numbers or electronic mail addresses.
Examples more recent than the telephone switching operator's index of telephone lines abound. For example, the wall calendar or desktop organizer has been a common means of tracking appointments, deadlines and performing scheduling. Day planners and personal organizers have also been a main stay of the business world. One of the earliest providers of day planners—Day-Timers, Inc.—began producing a time record book of calendar pages combining the functions of an appointment book, a reminder system, a detailed time record and work planner in 1947 called the ‘Lawyer's Day.’ These various organizers were lacking, however, in that they were either non-portable (e.g., desktop organizers or wall calendars) or were bulky and filled with a wide (and often scattered and disorganized) array of notes, reminders and memos.
With the aforementioned dawn of the personal computing age, computing devices quickly became smaller, more personable and financially accessible to the average consumer. Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) like those operating on the Palm-OS® quickly became pervasive starting with the release of the Pilot 1000 in 1996. Affectionately known as PalmPilots, these PDAs and other similar portable devices offered a digital means to keep track of calendar information (e.g., meetings and availability for other appointments), contact information (e.g., names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses) in addition to to-do lists, personal notes and so on. PDAs were advantageous in that they were portable, did not require the use of paper and, as a result of their design, forced certain degrees of organization that might not otherwise be present in a traditional day planner.
As the business environment became more interactive, there became an increased need to share information. As most business relationships are the result of networking and referrals, access to contact information of certain persons became more critical. The Palm III PDA recognized the need to share such information. The Palm III, which was released in 1998, included an InfraRed (IR) port in its hardware construction. Applications bundled within the Palm III would support data exchange over IR in accordance with InfraRed Data Association (IrDA) standards. Through the use of IR data protocols, the Palm III enabled Palm-to-Palm communications and data sharing including the exchange of PIM data.
Notwithstanding the ability to share PIM data through an IR port like that in the Palm III, the physical range of data exchanges was extremely limited—often no more than five feet. In today's business environment, it is not uncommon for business professionals to conduct business from around the globe. It is, perhaps, more uncommon for business professionals to conduct business transactions face-to-face much less within five feet of one another. Even with e-mail, facsimile, courier and express mail services, if business professionals happen to be in different time zones—or on different sides of the date line—the exchange of data can be delayed by several hours. Hours can often mean the difference between closing a deal or losing that deal to a possible competitor.
There is a need in the art to exchange PIM and other data regardless of temporal or geographic distances amongst individuals and business professionals.
There is also a need in the art to create more complete stores of PIM data wherein partial or incomplete PIM records can be updated or completed through the recognition of and access to various other PIM data records and sources.